London: Quick, Cheap and Easy

Except London was none of those things... but that's alright because it was still magical and absolutely wonderful! Christina, Emily, Pat and I spent 4 whole days in London this weekend. And it was long, expensive and difficult.

Thursday morning at 4:30 a taxi picked us up from the Kasteel, and we had a 6:45am flight that landed us in London by 7:00am. After breakfast of crepes, we wandered and made our way to Harrods for some shopping and gawking. Bought someone's present there! We learned that the Tube system is fairly easy to navigate, and that our hostel was cold and the staff wasn't that smart. We also met up with 2 of Pat and my friends from high school- Kara and Sandie. It was really great seeing them for dinner and drinks at a Irish restaurant/pub/club smack in the middle of Chinatown.

Friday we did the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby and shopped at the Forever21 of the UK: Primack. Then.... I SAW SINGIN' IN THE RAIN ON THE WEST END!!! That was one of the best productions I've ever seen... And I just saw my idol/crush perform as J. Pierrepont Finch on Broadway so that's saying something! But I was absolutely blown away- I loved every second of it. Squealing and crying through the whole show.

Saturday morning we walked around Kensington Garden, and saw the Crossing of the Guard. Then we headed to the London Tower and London Bridge. Saw the Crown Jewels! Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Occupy London has apparently set up camp next to. Dinner was an absolute DISASTER Saturday night. Curtain for the 2nd West End show we're seeing is at 8. We find an Italian place near the theater at 6:15. They tell us 5 minute wait. Then 10 minute wait. It's all okay, they bring us up to the waiting room and offer us wine. 20 minutes goes by, they seat us, then saw just kidding and bring us abck upstairs to the waiting room. At around 7:00 we ask if we can order our food anway, so it'll be ready when we're sat. Sure. So we order. We get sat about 10 minutes later. Come 7:25ish I've called the waitress (who did nothing) over and told her that we were leaving in 20 minutes for a show and if we don't have our food in the next 5 that we're leaving. She brings us bread and olives, then our food shows up exactly 5 minutes later. So we all scarf down what would have been delicious food in 15 minutes before scrambling to the theater. The wine and bread was free, but we paid full price for our food AND a 12.5% gratuity. I was not happy.
The show was great though! "The 39 Steps". Parody and physical comedy to the extreme! Woo!

Sunday we awoke SUPER early to get everything done on our lists that we wanted to. First stop was Shakespeare's Globe Theatre where we got a private tour and got to go up to both levels of seats. So cool. Then onto the National Gallery, where we saw the Impressionists and them promptly left for some yummy food and last minute postcard shopping. Then to the British Museum which wasn't that cool, except that we saw the Rosetta Stone.

And what would a trip to London be without a visit to Platform 9 3/4! We all got pictures there before running to grab our bus to the airport. Security at the airport was a disaster but at least the people were really nice about it.

Whew! What a weekend. As fun and exciting as travelling is, I'm looking forward to the next 2 weekends staying back. Carnivale is this weekend!